The Quaker Colony: Sculkill and Pennsylvania

When Penn had enjoyed possession of his territory a little while, he wrote an account of it to the "Free Society of Traders of Pennsylvania," and in it he manifests a power of graphic description really admirable. It brings the whole country vividly before our eyes; the land, "the best vales of England watered by brooks; the air, sweet; the heavens, serene like the south of France; the seasons, mild and temperate; vegetable productions abundant, chestnut, walnut, plums, muscatel grapes, wheat and other grain; a variety of animals, elk, deer, squirrel, and turkeys weighing forty or fifty pounds, water-birds and fish of divers kinds, no want of horses; and flowers lovely for color, greatness, figure, and variety.".

"Philadelphia, the expectation of those who are concerned in this province, is at last laid out, to the great content of those here who are any way interested therein. The situation is a neck of land, and lieth between two navigable rivers, Delaware and Sculkill, whereby it hath two fronts upon the water, each a mile; and two from river to river. Delaware is a glorious river; but the Sculkill, being a hundred miles boatable above the falls, and its course northwest toward the fountain of Susquehanna (that tends to the heart of the province, and both sides our own), it is like to be a great part of the settlement of this age. I say little of the town itself, because a platform will soon be shown you by my agent, in which those who are purchasers of me will find their names and interests. But this I will say, for the good providence of God, of all the places I have seen in the world, I remember not one better seated; so that it seems to me to have been appointed for a town, whether we regard the rivers, or the conveniency of the coves, docks, and springs, the loftiness and soundness of the land, and the air, held by the people of these parts to be very good. It is advanced within less than a year to about fourscore houses and cottages, such as they are, where merchants and handicrafts are following their vocations as fast as they can; while the countrymen are close at their farms."

Within two years of his arrival the infant city contained three hundred houses, and the population was reckoned at two thousand five hundred. Penn returned to England in 1684. There he met with misfortunes, and in 1692 his proprietary right was taken from him; but it was restored in 1694. In 1699 he again visited America. He found the people dissatisfied, and demanding further concessions and privileges. He framed a new charter, more liberal than the former. The city now contained seven hundred houses, and was very prosperous. He returned to England in 1701, after having made new treaties with the Indians and done all in his power to settle the affairs of his province. He died in 1718, leaving his interest in Pennsylvania to his sons. It continued in the family until the Revolution, when the claims of the Proprietors were purchased by the commonwealth for a value of about five hundred and eighty thousand dollars.